Halo 2 was
the much anticipated sequel to
Halo: Combat Evolved, and was released on November
9, 2004. Like its predecessor, it is also a first person shooter and was
designed for the original Xbox console. Unlike the first Halo game however,
Halo 2 had LIVE capabilities, and held the distinction of being the number
one Xbox LIVE
game for almost two years straight, when
Gears of War was finally released
and toppled Halo 2 from the number one spot. To date, Halo 2 is
the number one selling game for the original Xbox console, with sales listed at
nearly 9 million copies worldwide.

While the
storyline received some criticism, Halo 2 is credited with helping to
pave the way for how the gaming industry would develop. With Halo: CE,
one had to drag his or her console to a friend’s house to enjoy multiplayer
matches. By allowing players to now join with other players from all over the
world in the comfort of their own home, Halo 2 set the standard for
future online gaming. Bungie and Microsoft received recognition
for their efforts in Halo 2 and the game received multiple awards,
including several Game of the Year awards and many for the work done by the
sound, music and audio department.

The Story:

The story picks up
immediately following the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Several main
characters from the first game have survived destroying the Halo ring and have
made their way back to Earth
where they are being honored for their bravery-
most prominently, Master Chief
and Sergeant Johnson. Though he died during the
events in Halo: CE, Captain Keyes is also awarded a medal posthumously,
and his daughter Commander Miranda Keyes, is introduced as she accepts the
medal
on his behalf.

During the opening
scenes of this ceremony, we are cut to events unfolding on the Covenant’s side. The commander of the
Elite
forces that had been in charge of stopping the humans
from destroying the Halo ring is being stripped of his rank and declared a
Heretic for his failure and the loss of Halo which the Covenant
holds in
fanatically high regard. The Covenant is under the misguided belief that if they
activate any of the rings it will bring them salvation through something they
refer to as “The Great Journey.”

Back in orbit
around Earth, a small Covenant force lead by the Prophet of Regret, shows up and
the ceremony is cut short as everyone scrambles to defend Earth. Regret’s
carrier slips through the fighting and heads to the major city, New Mombasa,
Kenya
where the Covenant launches an all out assault on the city. Master Chief
leaps into action and with overwhelming UNSC forces against them, the Covenant
retreat by making a slipspace jump while still in atmosphere, thus obliterating
most of New Mombasa. Master Chief, Sergeant Johnson, Cortana
and Commander Keyes
pursue the Covenant aboard her ship In Amber Clad. Upon exiting the jump,
our heroes are faced with stopping the Covenant from activating another Halo
ring they have just stumbled upon.

Meanwhile, the
disgraced Elite Commander has been brought forth to the Covenant Hierarchs who
recognize that his failure was grave but that he is not a traitor to their
people. To redeem himself they offer him a chance to become The Arbiter. It is
an honored title, but one that is guaranteed to get him killed quickly. Faced
with being labeled a traitor and exiled from his own people or dying with honor,
the Elite soldier accepts the position of becoming The Arbiter, and is quickly
dispatched to the new Halo ring where the Prophet of Regret has sent a distress
call from.

The basic story is
much the same as in Halo: CE in that the Covenant is trying to activate
Halo while the humans are fighting to stop that. We are introduced to several
new key players: one of which is the Gravemind, who controls the Flood. During
the many conflicts, we see civil war
break out amongst the Covenant fleet and
the Elite race suddenly find themselves cast out not only from their position as
the Honor Guard to the Hierarchs, but from the Covenant in general. The Arbiter
is also finally made aware of the true nature of the Halo rings and begins to
organize his own soldiers to work with the humans in stopping the other Covenant
forces from firing Halo. The Gravemind either aids or works against you where it
fits his own plans, and the battle is divided into several fronts. The Chief and
Cortana find their way onto the Covenant carrier, High Charity, and in
the middle of the civil war between the Elites and the Brutes. The Chief takes
off after one of the Prophets who tries to escape on another vessel, leaving
Cortana behind to blow up the Charity and Halo if the Arbiter, Keyes, and
Johnson fail to stop the Brute Chieftain, Tartarus, from activating it.

Their efforts are
only partially successful as they stop Tartarus from firing the ring, but a
failsafe was triggered that put all the other existing Halo rings into a standby
mode that could be remotely activated from a location only referred to as “The
Ark”. They escape Halo even as the Gravemind is taking control of everything,
unaware that Cortana has been left behind on the still functional High
Charity. The final cut scene after the credits reveal Cortana caving to the Gravemind’s interrogation, thus spelling further doom for humanity’s survival.

Gampeplay:

Like the Halo:
CE, Halo 2 had two types of gaming to offer - Campaign mode which
takes a single player through the story of the game, and Multiplayer which
allowed several players to join up either via system link or online in matches
pitted against other players.

In the Campaign,
Bungie took what made the first game such a success and built upon it. Most of
the game mechanics were improved upon and things like driving the infamous
Warthog
became a little less nightmarish. A player no longer had to go hunting
for health packs, and you could ‘jack’ an enemy’s vehicle if they are coming at
you at a slow enough speed. A player could now also play as the Arbiter in parts
of the game and there were new weapons, vehicles, and the ability to camouflage
yourself for brief periods of time that was pretty cool. Overall, playing the
game was an improvement as they introduced a new gaming engine that helped
stepped up the performance of the mechanics. Unfortunately, Bungie ran into some
serious deadline issues and instead of delaying the launch so they could release
a polished product, they cut corners on the story’s development resulting in
graphics issues throughout the game, not as much content as they had hoped for,
and the abrupt cliffhanger ending.

Multiplayer was
vastly improved upon with Halo 2 as a wide variety of maps were included
with the original game and more were available for download at later dates. The
environments were also much more complex and detailed, allowing players the
chance to explore a variety of different terrains. The matches were made
available on LIVE as was mentioned previously, and Bungie introduced several new
game types. There were drawbacks to the new system however. A player would
select from a generic play list and then be randomly grouped in with other
players, not all of whom would be one the same playing level as you. Because of Bungie’s rush to release, there were a large amount of bugs in the various
multiplayer maps, and players quickly began to exploit these in an effort to
cheat during matches. A whole new generation of cheating was also born with
Halo 2 as people figured out ways to use computer programs, and other
technical tricks to gain control of matches, boost their player’s abilities, and
wreak havoc for other players in general. While Bungie declared these various
methods of cheating as illegal and threatened that players using such methods
would face repercussions, it would not be until well after the launch of Halo 3 that they had the capability to really carry through on their watchdog
program.

My Opinion:

Of the entire
Halo franchise, Halo 2 was my least favorite of the series. I got
into Halo for the storyline and because development on the game was so
rushed, I felt like many others in that the game wasn’t quite finished. It’s not
to say that I didn’t enjoy the game, because I did. Not crashing the vehicles
all over the place was definitely a huge relief for me, and playing as the
Arbiter and now having access to certain Covenant toys that were once off limits
to the players was a definite bonus. But everything happened so quickly and at
the end everyone was all over the place and I found it was a little hard to
follow what exactly was going down in places. I hadn’t even realized Cortana got
left behind until I watched all the way through the credits! The whole ending
was just too abrupt, and I was a bit let down.

Some high points
for me however was in the music and sound of the game. While they might have had
to crunch in the technical aspects and story development of the game, Marty O’Donnell
and Michael Salvatori
did yet another outstanding job with the music
and sound effects in the game. Once again the entire game is scored with an
amazing blend of music that thankfully helped support an otherwise sagging
storyline. From the somber and beautiful piano solo in “Unforgotten”, to the
stringed staccato of “Peril”, to the rousing electric and drum cadences of
“Unyielding” a player is given the emotional lift that the game itself wouldn’t
have achieved otherwise. Sticking with his belief that no part of the game
should be quiet, O’Donnell was praised for his excelling work in seeing to the
ambient noises throughout the entire game that helps make a game more realistic.

As for the
multiplayer matchmaking online, I have mixed feeling about it. It was an amazing
thing to be playing a game online with players from all over the world all of
whom shared the same interest I did. However, as the cheating became more and
more prevalent, I noticed a trend of how aggressive the players were becoming
and suddenly this GAME was some kind of warped reality to these people who would
become near psychotic while playing. Trash talking
was taken to a whole new
level, ‘t-bagging’ someone you just killed was born, and my eardrums began to
bleed as the numbers of screamers increased exponentially. Sadly, I stopped
playing the versus matches online altogether for a period of time because Bungie
just didn’t have the resources to monitor the matches on Halo 2
extensively and cut down on such incidences.

When playing or
watching a series of games or movies you notice that there tends to be the one
part that you just don’t quite enjoy as much for one reason or another: slow
start to the story, poor acting/directing, poor quality, gaps in plot, etc etc. For me, this was that game in the whole of the Halo series to date. I think
almost every one of the Halo games could have used something more to make
them a better game, but then no one ever really nails a product completely and
that will make every gamer completely happy. Halo is a plot driven story
with a vast cast of characters, and Halo 2 could have been so much more
if Bungie had decided to delay the launch in favor of putting out a more
finished product. Despite it being my least favorite, I would still buy it again
simply because it is a critical part of the story, and despite some of its
failings, the overall gaming experience was still enjoyable enough for me to
have played it through more than once.